They killed his wife ten years ago. There’s still time to save her. Murder is forever… until now. No, wait that’s the tagline for Timecop. There must be one for Time Recoil. Got it.

The world needs a time bending super hero today.

Gameplay:Time Recoil is a nice little game where time travel and slow-motion murder draws much of the focus. There is a plot that verges on convolution and a paradoxical narrative but it’s at least entertaining enough to follow.

Controls are slowly explained as the game progresses and opportunity given to test out new gameplay mechanic at each new section. Early levels are just one small floor each of a towering skyscraper that is usually obliterated with gunfire and explosions by the end of the quick mission.

You’ll either have to grab some documents or kill or rescue some important person, while generally just shooting everyone you can see to keep the slow-motion gunplay going. Once the killing begins time slows and you must keep murdering people to top-up the time distortion.

Dodging bullets and speeding through weak walls becomes blissfully addictive and learning the patterns of destruction is easy enough, at least in the early missions. You don’t have to stick to an exact path through the level but it helps to know where the enemies are as you try to keep the momentum going.

Enough kills in slow-motion will grant the use of special moves that range from a destructive time blast and a devastating but short dash that obliterates anything in its path, including people. I have occasionally run out of bullets, which meant I had to use a weak melee attack until I found another gun that was either dropped by an enemy or just lying around.

Once a level is complete it can be revisited in a Time Attack mode with the available difficulty levels. This becomes very challenging and is recommended for the skilled players who want to test themselves. The same goes for the Platinum Trophy, which I can almost guarantee will remain Ultra Rare.

Visuals:
Using the same engine and graphical style from Neon Chrome has probably helped to keep costs down for this game but don’t think the developers cut corners elsewhere as Time Recoil has a nice distinctive look to the levels, characters, and story pop-ups.

Then we have the blood, oh so much blood. Bodies are flung back, peppered with bullets, smearing blood in their wake. Most of the walls can be destroyed and bits of those walls and furniture are left scattered on the blood-soaked floor.

Audio:
I could swear I’ve heard the same blood-curdled death cries from their other games, but I hear so many I could be mistaken. The music and sound effects are good, nothing special but enjoyable nevertheless. Again, it feels slightly reminiscent of Neon Chrome with that futuristic fast-paced techno beat.

Online/Multiplayer:
This game is one player only with no online component. There are supposed to be leaderboards but none of them work. I have been clicking on each completed level’s leaderboard button in the Mission Archive menu without any success.

UPDATE: This issue has since been fixed.

Conclusion:
I enjoyed playing Time Recoil. It isn’t a massive game but the core mechanics are entertaining and energetically fun. Will the story win some awards? I doubt it but there are some attempts at clever plot points and it does a better job than the classically cheesy Timecop, for example.

This game is a clever little tweak on the developer’s tried and true formula that works well and it’s one that I would like to see blossom into a sequel. With quick missions and more bullet-dodging than The Matrix, this is worth checking out.

Score:

* All screenshots used in this review were taken directly from the game using the Share functionality on the PlayStation 4.